Thursday, 7 June 2007

This ended up being a very pleasant day. I woke up, spoke with F., had a good breakfast of toast and egg. Spent the morning reading and updating my blog. Pishimoni, Pishomoshai and I then got lunch, rice, vegetables, dal, and fish. After lunch I turned on the air conditioning in my parents’ bedroom and fell asleep. I woke up around four thirty and watched the BBC world service news, and the NDTV evening news bulletins. Mum and I went downstairs for a swim in our clubhouse. The clubhouse is possibly the best thing about the Great Eastern Gardens Complex. It’s a single storey structure, painted white with a gym, a pool table, a card and carom lounge, a table tennis room, a squash court, a sauna, and a Jacuzzi. Beyond the clubhouse itself is a roller skating rink, an open air theatre, a children’s play are equipped with a jungle gym, a gigantic chess set, and two swimming pools. The first of the swimming pools is the baby pool that has a bridge going over it, and two water slides, one of which is covered. The second larger swimming pool is meant for those who already know how to swim. I really like spending my evenings in the swimming pool or on those days that it rains, in the gym. After we got back we decided to go out to do some shopping. Mum had to buy some vegetables and fruits and I still had to get a pair of sneakers. The four of us walked till the Kanjurmarg Station road. Here Mum and Pishimoni turned towards the station as an excellent vegetable market is located along this road, while Pishomoshai and I walked on towards the Huma mall. Thankfully the Huma mall did have electricity. The advantage of shopping at Huma mall is that although the mall stocks high end commodities, the stores themselves are generally factory outlets, as a result the products are available at generous discounts. After hunting around a bit we found a shoe store on the second floor, and I got a pair of Nike shoes. I was quite excited about them. Pishomoshai very generously bought me the pair. Later in the evening, after we had gotten back home, and Baba had come back from work as well, we got ready to go out for dinner. Pishomoshai had wanted to take us out for dinner, and I had voted that we go to a restaurant Mum and Baba had been raving about since last summer, Shera. We got into Baba’s car and ploughed our way through very heavy traffic north into the town of Mulund. Shera’s claim to fame is live Ghazal (North Indian classical music) performances. The restaurant had out door seating, as well as an indoors restaurant, and an indoor bar. There were also seating arrangements made on the roof of the restaurant. I noticed that they also had a palmist. We sat in the restaurant and ordered chicken and mutton kebabs as starters. For our main courses we ordered Rogan gosht (North Indian lamb curry) and a paneer dish (Cottage cheese). We had these with naan. The food was quite exquisite. All of us were very full, and came home quite satisfied. I fell asleep very happy.